1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a power saving apparatus, and more particularly, to a power saving apparatus that uses a plurality of switches, including a switch provided in a remote controller receptacle mounted on a device, to turn on or off power to the device according to whether or not a remote controller is received in the remote controller receptacle, thereby saving standby power of the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electric appliances such as a TV and an air conditioner used at home are generally provided with a remote controller to allow users to remotely control the electric appliances, thereby improving user convenience. A remote control receiver in the electric appliance receives a control signal from the remote controller and transfers the control signal to a controller in the electric appliance. The controller identifies the control signal and controls the electric appliance to perform an operation corresponding to the control signal.
Generally, a minimum power (or standby power) is supplied to the controller including the remote control receiver in the electric appliance, which is controllable by the remote controller, when the electric appliance is inactive. The minimum power is supplied in order to allow the inactive electric appliance to receive the control signal output from the remote controller as the user operates the remote controller to control the electric appliance and then to perform the operation corresponding to the control signal.
The standby power, which is consumed when the electric appliance is inactive, is tens of watts per hour in a home according to statistics. Unnecessary power consumption due to the standby power throughout the country amounts to hundreds of millions of watts.
The electric appliance cannot be controlled using the remote controller if the power to the electric appliance is completely cut off and the standby power is kept at 0W in order to reduce the unnecessary waste of power. In this case, to control the electric appliance using the remote controller, the user must directly operate a power switch provided on the electric appliance to supply minimum power to the electric appliance.
A conventional power saving apparatus is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2002-54596. The conventional power saving apparatus includes a power controller, which determines whether or not a signal has been input to an infrared receiver, and a sub-power detector which turns on or off power to a microcomputer. This power saving apparatus also causes unnecessary power consumption since the minimum power must be supplied to allow the infrared receiver to determine whether or not a signal has been input to the infrared receiver. In addition, the additional sub-power detector increases manufacturing costs.